# Let's talk about "The Thing" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 15, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840 "2023-02-15T18:03:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/141 "2023-03-07T14:57:48Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > OTOH maybe that would be the likely composition of a crew of Arctic scientists in the day. I can’t help it, I like to see female representation. That would almost certainly be the appropriate composition of a small Antarctic outpost, even today. You can understand why few women are interested in spending months cloistered with a bunch of guys and no means of escape, and allegations of harassment and sexual assault are rampant even at McMurdo Station. ‘Representation’ is well and good but it would be anachronistic and peculiar in this particular case. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/142 "2023-03-07T15:21:43Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Representation’ is well and good but it would be anachronistic and peculiar in this particular case. It would also risk adding an element of male chivalry that would distract from the narrative. Ignoring that male impulse would make the characterizations less believable. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/143 "2023-03-07T22:05:18Z")
The chess master was female! What’s the problem? (Voiced by carpenter’s wife I believe) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/144 "2023-03-07T22:16:46Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > It would also risk adding an element of male chivalry that would distract from the narrative. Or add conflict. Imagine being nice to a lady who then swallows you with her face. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/145 "2023-03-07T22:29:05Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > That’s funny, the one critique I have of the film is that it’s a total sausage fest. OTOH maybe that would be the likely composition of a crew of Arctic scientists in the day. I can’t help it, I like to see female representation. But it’s hard to imagine another Ripley. I think tokenism might have been worse. Natalie Portman starred in a movie called _Annhilation_ in 2018. The military sends an expedition into an area where some wonky alien stuff is taking place in the United States. The entire team is made of women and there’s no particular explanation as to why. I don’t know if it makes me a bad person, but I don’t question why an arctic research station in the early 80s might be staffed entirely by men but I sure did wonder why a military expedition in the 2000s was made up entirely of women. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/146 "2023-03-07T22:34:59Z")
I have that book on my TBR list. Some fields are just inexplicably gender disproportionate. Artic research teams make a bit more sense, but there’s also random stuff like forensic scientists who are mostly women. My husband’s field, clinical psych, is also dominated by women, though it’s not exactly rare to meet a male psychologist. Of course almost all social workers in my field are women, and the minority of men at nonprofits inevitably end up in charge. ETA: missed “military expedition” so yeah, I’ve got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2023, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/147 "2023-03-07T23:19:20Z")
I think only one member of the team in Annihilation was pure military muscle. The other two were scientists. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/148 "2023-03-08T00:13:22Z")
It seems plausible to me that military units could be gender segregated. But I’m not a military expert. I think it’s funny that I love military sci Fi because I find the real world stuff pretty boring. Maybe if they start shooting space lasers… ---
**Author:** ![WhyKickAMooCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc29f/32.png) [@WhyKickAMooCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyKickAMooCow)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/149 "2023-03-08T10:16:32Z")
Next you’ll be complaining that the rescue team in Predator was all men. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/150 "2023-03-08T13:29:49Z")
And one was the wife of a previous team member, which seems like an odd choice. Would they generally send a spouse in after the other? Of course, if she’s a famous scientist that explains it. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/151 "2023-03-08T13:58:35Z")
> [@WhyKickAMooCow](#): > > Next you’ll be complaining that the rescue team in Predator was all men. “My team works alone, you know that.” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/152 "2023-03-08T15:07:50Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Natalie Portman starred in a movie called _Annhilation_ in 2018. The military sends an expedition into an area where some wonky alien stuff is taking place in the United States. The entire team is made of women and there’s no particular explanation as to why. I don’t know if it makes me a bad person, but I don’t question why an arctic research station in the early 80s might be staffed entirely by men but I sure did wonder why a military expedition in the 2000s was made up entirely of women. I don’t recall if its specified in the film, but in the novel the movie is based on: they’ve sent multiple expedition teams of into the shimmer previously, most/all of which ended in disaster due to various psychological issues, and are experimenting with team composition to find something that works. The Natalie Portman team was intentionally selected as all-female as a control variable. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/153 "2023-03-09T00:17:33Z")
> [@WhyKickAMooCow](#): > > Next you’ll be complaining that the rescue team in Predator was all men. I’m afraid I have very unpopular opinions about Predator. I’ll keep them to myself. > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > And one was the wife of a previous team member, which seems like an odd choice. Would they generally send a spouse in after the other? Now that seems implausible. I can’t imagine any military installation allowing a mission situation where a soldier was emotionally compromised. I know it happens all the time in movies, but still. ---
**Author:** ![WhyKickAMooCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc29f/32.png) [@WhyKickAMooCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyKickAMooCow)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/154 "2023-03-13T12:31:31Z")
@Spice_Weasel Please share! this has become a very interesting thread 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/155 "2023-03-14T23:20:53Z")
Well, it’s not a very sophisticated opinion, I just think _Predator_ is a bad movie. I had high expectations coming off _Alien_ (I’m seeing all of these for the first time decades after they first became popular, mind you.) And _Predator_ was just kinda…stupid. And I thought the victim/woman character unimpressive. There wasn’t much of a story. I just didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/156 "2023-03-14T23:49:22Z")
That’s a big difference between “The Thing” and a lot of other similarly themed movies. Is that you do see Thing’s characters as more individuals (except maybe Bennings and Fuchs), even the ones who’ve been taken over. Like Norris, who refused command, even though he was a Thing at the time. Hey, why did he do that? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/157 "2023-03-15T00:17:51Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Well, it’s not a very sophisticated opinion, I just think _Predator_ is a bad movie. I had high expectations coming off _Alien_ (I’m seeing all of these for the first time decades after they first became popular, mind you.) > And _Predator_ was just kinda…stupid. _Predator_ was definitely a movie of its time, and that time being the late “Classic Arnold Schwarzenegger” period of _Conan_, _Commando_, _Raw Deal_, _The Running Man_, and _Red Heat_; stories that were centered on Schwarzenegger as a basically invulnerable hero with a plot that exists just to string together action scenes. _Predator_ actually stands out as being a more group cast oriented film which does have an actual plot-within-a-plot, and one in which Schwarzenegger‘s “Dutch” is actually the underdog who has to use some wits rather than brawn. That being said, it’s not an ‘deep’ film from a story standpoint and Elpidia Carrillo‘s character is really just there for exposition. It certainly isn’t the kind of ‘haunted house’ sensibility of _Alien_ or _The Thing_ even if it does share the general plot element of characters being hunted by an alien; it’s really more of a straight ‘Eighties actioneer with the ‘Predator’ inserted as the Big Bad, and a bit of “The Most Dangerous Game”. However, I doubt we’ll ever get another movie with as many future governors in leading roles, or the on-screen chemistry between Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers. “What’s the matter? The CIA got you pushing too many pencils?” Even if you don’t like the movie for its shallow character development and workmanlike plot, you have to acknowledge that it is eminently quotable. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/158 "2023-03-15T00:29:18Z")
Predator is also notable for the first alien design in years not to be a ripoff of Giger. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/159 "2023-03-15T00:37:14Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > And _Predator_ was just kinda…stupid. And I thought the victim/woman character unimpressive. There wasn’t much of a story. I just didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. Predator was a dumb movie that just happened to be a lot of fun. While I enjoyed the movie, there’s a reason we haven’t had threads about it like we have with The Thing or Alien. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840/160 "2023-03-15T08:21:14Z")
Yeah, Predator is not in the same league at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-the-thing/979840.md?page=9)